Redemption
by Baby Velociraptor
Summary: Sequel to Reflections. At twenty seven, Amu has become the Lieutenant in Tokyo's homicide division. After the murders that changed her own life, she became the one to hunt them down. Five months ago a serial killer vanished, and the world went on. When he comes after her family, she won't let it go until she catches him. The title may change.
1. Chapter 1

**So after a long time of trying to get this right, here is the sequel to Reflections. Keep in mind that Amu is an adult, and I am seventeen. So I can't write this from experience. This is a totally new area for me. I got a new laptop, so updates can come more often! **

**Side note: I'm starting my own book.**

**Second Side note (as the biggest Bleach fan girl ever) Rukia has a bankai! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Shugo Chara, or any of its characters. The title is a work in progress.**

* * *

The Tsukiyomi home was filled with the smell of breakfast. Amu was cooking while her husband got dressed upstairs. Their son Aiko sat in front of the TV, watching cartoons instead of getting ready. It's a daily routine.

"Aiko, put your shoes on!" She'd already dressed him for the school day. "Bring me your folder!" The six year old padded into the kitchen, carrying a plastic yellow folder. Everyday his kindergarten teacher sent home a daily report for a parent to sign. She scribbled her signature and left it for Ikuto to sign.

Both of them were very involved in his life, from birthday parties to family outings. She never thought she would have a child so early, at twenty one, about to finish college. Although Aiko wasn't planned, he's their miracle. Ikuto picked him up from behind. "Why aren't you ready?" He growled at him playfully, spinning him around. Aiko giggled loudly.

Ikuto sat him on his shoulders while he signed the paper. "Let me get that." Amu stepped forward and tied his tie for him. She put breakfast on their plates and set them on the table. "Eat up." It was like she floated around their house. It's the only place she feels at ease completely. Despite her job, no danger came home with her. She packed a lunch for Aiko and put snacks in a sack since it was his turn to bring snacks.

"Can I take drinks too?" He asked with his mouth full. "No one ever brings drinks." It warmed her heart to see him caring about his classmates.

"Sure." Ikuto answered and ruffled his hair. "We can pick some up on the way."

That's how their mornings usually went. Danger had never come to her home, at least not yet. There wasn't anything that would imply danger was coming. It was a Tuesday with cool weather. Aiko slid off of the chair to go put his shoes on. "Mommy?" He called out. Amu leaned out of the kitchen to look at him. "There's a brown box on the porch. It says your name really big."

Her eyes widened a large gasp came out of her mouth. "What's wrong?" Ikuto asked, bewildered as his wife sprinted past him.

"Aiko, get back. Go to Daddy." He didn't say mom or dad yet. He was little and innocent. She prayed she was wrong, but when she say her name with no return address her stomach twisted and somehow she knew. Ikuto picked their son up, who didn't understand yet. She was already calling her brother. "Kukai, he came to my house."

"Who?" Kukai was barely awake, after taking an early tumble in the bed with his own wife.

She looked back at her son, whose eyes were wide. Ikuto realized what that face meant. He'd seen that face when she came home from work on bad days. "He left a package on my porch. Aiko saw it." Like a light switch being flipped, he understood. The rustling in the background told Amu her brother was on his feet and was on his way. "I'm calling everyone." By everyone, she meant the best ones she knew in her division.

Ikuto told him go upstairs while he talked to Amu. She rubbed her temples nervously. "Is it the man you told me about?" She nodded. Her hand was over her gun and she was prepared to grab it. "Shh." He hugged her. "I've got you and you'll get him. Aiko's okay."

"He could have broken in to our house when Aiko is here!" She tried not to cry. Her composure would be calm when everyone got here. Being a nervous wreck wouldn't be an option for a Lieutenant in Homicide. "I don't want him to go to school."

"Alright, I can take him to work with me. He can go to Ami's classroom." She breathed in and nodded. "Alright?"

"He knows where we live. I want a security system installed." He agreed while rubbing her back. "I need to go open that."

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah." Amu pulled gloves from a kitchen drawer. She'd better be professional about opening that box. After carefully opening it, her eyes grew wide. "Oh, God." The box held pictures, and at the bottom there was a bloody piece of tissue. The blood wasn't what made her stomach lurch. She worked in homicide. Dead bodies and bloody body parts kind of came with the job. The photograph held two people she knew.

Despite the bad blood, she knew the entire world just broke its axis.

* * *

It was chaos. "Find them." Since she'd walked into the station this morning it was like someone lit a fire beneath their feet. Even at five foot five she could intimidate a six two grown man. Power seemed to leak from her body. "Find out if she was alive when they cut off her finger." the lab analyst agreed and rushed off.

It was her left ring finger. There was a tan line where her wedding ring used to be. Why would he let her keep the ring? No, he wouldn't. It's a trophy.

By the time Lieutenant Tsukiyomi made it to her office, there were three boxes full of information on the man she'd been hunting. Since Tokyo is a huge city and murders happen every day, other cases are put on the back burner. This one should have never been put there. For only being the lieutenant of this division for six months, she was doing an incredible job. She's the youngest female to make it here. Chief Aizawa used to be in this office, trying to solve the case that no longer haunted her.

There was a knock on her door frame. An intern had been sent with a message. "Detective Hinamori sent me to tell you he hasn't found them yet."

"Then tell me when he does!" Amu ripped the lid off of a cardboard box and started wading through the immense piles of copy paper. "Are you still here?"

In the three months of being here the intern had never heard her be so harsh. "I'm sorry. I'm wondering if you're okay." Had Amu been turned around, the girl would have seen her face soften and then grow hard again. "They're your parents, aren't they?"

How long has it been since she thought of like that? Her parents are at the hand of a serial killer. Amu tried to forgive them, really. It just hadn't worked out in the end.

"Yeah, I'm okay. I just want to find them and nail this asshole to the wall." Amu turned to her. "Go help in the lab, okay?" She rushed off. For what felt like the millionth time she sighed heavily. If she worried about the worst, she would convince herself of the worst. Amu had to focus. All she could do was search until she found something. So, she went over what she knew.

Behind the closed blinds of her glass office, she would relax. It was like her life and family affairs were under a microscope. Off in a different room, someone poured over her entire life with her parents. Was there someone they knew? They wouldn't take her word.

Amu knew she did not know this man. She knew tons about him, but there wasn't a face.

Kukai found her in the briefing room, scribbling on white boards as if it were an Olympic sport.

"Okay. A man between forty five, and fifty of Asian descent." She almost kicked the table leg in frustration. That didn't narrow it down. His sister knew this profile by heart. She'd compiled it a little over a year ago for a town across their island country. "Divorced." He'd learned to just not question his sister when it came to profiling. If she said it, he trusted her. Her gut instinct is one of the best tools he'd ever seen. "He moved here seven months ago from Osaka."

In one of the boxes there's a list of men fitting that description the size of a novella. Aizawa caused them to put the case away into a filing cabinet, among many, that held cases that were never solved. It made Amu angry every time she walked into that room. Lives had been taken like blowing out a candle. If she had time, she'd make herself sick trying to find who did it.

"Hey." Kukai finally made his presence known. Her eyes were red and her under eyes slightly puffy. Once she realized it, she'd cover it with make-up. Looking weak isn't something she enjoys. "Find anything?" The answer was already obvious. "Have you ate?"

"Don't give me that shit." She snapped and turned back. Under normal circumstances, he might have laughed. "Why don't you help me?"

"I'm going to grab some food for you and then I'm going to help you." She waved him off as she sat on the tile and started spreading papers around her. If there's anything here, she's going to find it. Like a drug dog finds drugs, she's going to nail him. If anyone got to be an asshole to her parents, it's her and only her. Despite how bad that sounds, it's sweet in its own way. A lot had happened since she was sixteen.

The scene he came back to reminded him of her senior year. She would sit like this with her homework completely focused. Not even Ikuto could break her away. When he saw her put her hair up and pull of the professional jacket, he knew she was in her own word. He sat across from her, making his own web of information. They exchanged a look. Desperation came across her face.

In a sad way, it was a picture moment. Both Hinamori children working to save their parent's like some kind of super heroes. The only thing that made Amu sadder was that she would have to tell their sister. That could only wait for so long.

* * *

Amu and Kukai walked down the hallway, with lockers on either side of them. After a few years Ami realized she wouldn't be able to teach small children for the rest of her life. After taking a test, she became certified to teach secondary education and now she taught at the high school all of them had attended. Right now, she was in the middle of a class.

Aiko was probably playing games on her computer and trying to talk to everyone in the room. This was all too surreal. Their parents had just left Tokyo about two years ago after unpleasant circumstances. Amu hadn't had any contact at all. As for Ami, she didn't know. Her heeled boots clicked against the tile.

Kukai didn't knock; he strolled right in. Nadeshiko, Aiko's babysitter, was in that class. Aiko was sitting beside her desk, playing a game on her smart phone. "All of you need to leave. The librarian is waiting for you." Her voice was full of tension. "Go."

"What are you doing? You can't just come in here and send my class out. Finish your tests!" Ami remained cool and collected.

"We need to talk to you." Kukai whispered in her ear. "It's about Mom and Dad. They need to leave." Her eyes widened as she took in the note of urgency in his voice.

"Okay. Put your tests on my desk."

"Nadeshiko, will you take Aiko with you?" Her eyes were tired as she asked. It was two in the afternoon now. It had been seven hours of going to files and scouring the city for their parents. They had absolutely nothing to show for it.

"What's going on? Does it have to do with what happened this morning?" Ikuto must have told her.

"The man that we're chasing," Kukai struggled to find the words. "He's a serial killer, and he's been sending packages to the station, addressed to Amu. This morning Aiko found one from him on their porch."

"Okay. What does that have to do with Mom and Dad?" Amu had a hard time looking at her sister because of the look in her eyes. As the baby of the family, she was really close with them. She could still call them that. "He has them."

Her face grew paler and she sat down. Her legs would have let her fall. "How do you know for sure?"

Amu heard herself tell her little sister about the finger. She heard her start to cry and she pretended it made her feel better to know that Midori Hinamori was alive when they cut off her ring finger.

"We're going to find them. I promise." Kukai said. That's the only option.

The only thing Amu felt was numbness. She thought she hated them, but now she just wanted to break down. They had tried to make up for their mistakes, hadn't they? Time to dwell about that would come later.

"Aiko's school doesn't want him to come back for a few days. They are worried that if he goes to school, trouble will come with him." Those had been the exact words the principal left on her voice mail. She suspected the same voice mail had been left on her husband's phone. "I'm sorry to ask when you just found out."

She waved it off. "Don't worry about it. He can come to school with me. Nadeshiko is in here all day, so it's a perfect fit."

"Thank you."

Amu left to see her son before she had to go out into all of this bullshit. Aiko is a breath of fresh air when work becomes too much. "Mommy!" He jumped off of his babysitter's lap and ran into her arms. She spun him around while picking him up. "What's wrong? You look sad."

It's amazing how perceptive children are. Her eyes were tired and her face said it all. "It's okay. Do you remember your grandparents? My parents?" He nodded. "I have to find them, that's all."

"Are they okay?" His eyes were wide with worry. Children are so forgiving, she thought. She still hadn't forgiven her mother her mistake. If she was being honest, she'd say Midori Hinamori couldn't take care of any child.

"Yeah. They'll be okay." Her son is smart enough to realize that they aren't okay yet but he didn't say anything. "You're going to be coming to work with Aunt Ami for a few days, okay?" It would be the rest of the week.

"Yay!" He laughed and wrapped his arms around her neck. "Are you okay, Mommy?" She breathed in.

"Yes. I'll be better when I find them though."

"I hope you find them then." She ruffled his blue hair. He was the spitting image of his father. Really. She's compared the baby pictures. "Can we go out to eat tonight?"

"What do you want?"

"Pizza!"

She laughed at his excitement. "We'll go out to eat right after I get home, deal?" He nodded and kissed her cheek.

"Can I go back to Shiko now?" He could say Nadeshiko, but he liked to call her Shiko instead.

"Go for it." He ran back to the purple haired teenager who was talking to some boy. The boy looked up to see Amu. Her look said something along the lines of if you hurt her, I have a gun.

* * *

They went out to a family restaurant to eat pizza. As soon as Amu got home she changed into a casual dress with flats. She'd grown to love dresses because they were so flowy and comfortable. Ikuto wore a plain t shirt with a jacket. Aiko talked the whole way there. Any thoughts Amu and Ikuto had about their morning went out the window as their adorable child told them about his day.

"Aunt Ami gave me candy!" He said excitedly as they sat down in a booth. "Shiko played with me at lunch time too. Her friends are really nice." They ordered and laughed as Aiko told their waitress she was pretty.

"You're gonna be a heart breaker when you grow up, aren't you?" Ikuto said, tickling his sides.

"Just like you." Amu joked as she took a drink. He gave her a look. She just smiled.

"Do you want to go play in the game room?" Both of them knew that any money he spent would be gone and he more than likely wouldn't win anything from the claw machine. Still, she emptied the change slot in her purse and he emptied his pockets of change. He ran off happily, promising he'd bring them back a surprise. "What happened today?"

"He took my parents and sent me my mother's finger in a box." She didn't take the time to find a better answer. "We can't find them, but she was alive when they cut it off."

He rested his hand on top of hers. "I'm so sorry, love." She cast her eyes downward. "I'm sure you'll find them." She shrugged.

"I hope so. Aiko is going to go with Ami to work the next few days." He agreed with her.

Their conversation was cut off by Aiko running to them while holding two objects. He set a small plastic container from the machine in from of Amu and another in front of Ikuto. "I got you a ring." He popped it open and slid it on her pinky. Amu swore she had the cutest son in the world.

"What did you get me?" Ikuto asked happily. All traces of their earlier conversation vanished, along with those feelings.

"A tattoo!" He popped it open. It was a tattoo of a butterfly. Amu snickered quietly.

"It's so manly." She commented. Ikuto gave her a playful glare. Just as Ikuto agreed to go put the tattoo on in the bathroom, their food arrived. Amu waited while they went to the bathroom and put pizza on each of their plates.

Ikuto wore his tattoo proudly on his hand. They spent the next hour and a half laughing and talking about anything. Ikuto would reach over and hold her hand when he thought her face was starting to fall. It was a good night.

The fact that tomorrow would bring its own challenges didn't matter. Her parents were somewhere, still alive she was sure. This man wouldn't just let them off that easy. He wanted to mess with her head. Even though that was bad, it meant they were alive. She was with her family, and they're the ones she needed most right now.

* * *

**End of Chapter One**

**Review if you enjoyed it. Thank you for reading! **

**-Kelsey. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Whoa, another chapter the next day? I'm on a roll. I really hope you like the story. Twenty people already subscribed to it, so it can't be that terrible. Thanks for reading. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Shugo Chara. **

* * *

Since he wouldn't be going to school for the rest of the week, he took his snacks to his Aunt's class instead. Being in her class was a blast for him. Everyone talked to him and played with him. Everyone was nice to him. A few times a day Shiko would walk him to Daddy's office. Aiko helped him with his work.

"How are you, Daddy?" He asked while his father held his hand as they walked to the vending machines. Ikuto grinned every time a girl would whisper about how cute his son is. He was like a carbon copy of him, but had Amu's eyes.

"Great." He swung him up high and set him on his shoulders. "Are you having fun in Aunt Ami's class?"

"Yeah! I don't wanna go back to my school!" Ikuto laughed happily at his excitement. "Can I have pop?" He hesitated. Anytime Aiko had pop, he got even more hyper than he is normally. "I promise to be good." No one had to worry about him being bad in the first place. Ikuto finally gave in and got them both a bottle of pop. "Can I have a candy bar too?"

"Sure." He put the money in the machine and let Aiko pick his own snack. He decided on a Twix. "Your Mom loves those." Aiko grinned, because that's why he loved them.

"I know. She ate them all the time while I was in her tummy!"

It's hard to believe that only yesterday their lives got turned upside down. The good thing is that Aiko didn't know how bad it was. Once Ikutomade it back to his office, he would call Amu and see how things were going at their house. Currently, a new security system was being installed under his wife's close eye. He'd left a check on the kitchen island that morning, telling her to just use his money. His wallet already hurt. Most women spend their husband's money on clothes, and shoes. His wife was spending it on a security system.

"Have they found grandma and grandpa?"

From the moment they decided to give them a chance to be grandparents, they'd also decided that Aiko wouldn't know their real opinion of them. Ikuto sees kids every day that are trapped between the conflicts within their own family and they feel blamed. As a high school counselor, he sees a lot of strife that begins in the family. Their son wouldn't grow up knowing a rival set their family apart. If he wanted to call them grandma, and grandpa that was okay. If anything, Ikuto hated them more than he had when they were teenagers.

"No." The little boy's face fell as he heard his answer. "Don't worry about it, okay." Aiko hasn't seen them in two years, but he remembers them. They were nice to him and bought him toys anytime they came to visit. He walked him back to his sister in law's room and realized how dead her expression was. Her class realized it as well. The board's agenda said _Finish Test. _They weren't finishing a test, because their teacher had written on the board in bigger words _Work Day. Please do not get too loud. _Amu sat behind her desk, looking at a scrapbook.

Ikuto went to her, about to offer to watch her class. "Don't ask me if I'm okay." Her class didn't hear her say it she was so quiet. "I don't need any help."

He quietly left through the door while she kept her head down, staring at a picture from when they were still an actual family.

* * *

Amu's head popped up when there was a knock on her door frame. "Oh, hey. Kukai is in the briefing room." Utau shook her head and lifted up a bag, containing fast food.

She's on break and she hardly gets one, being a paramedic. Everyone except Kukai and Ikuto had changed their original career path. After high school, Utau went to college for business. "I'm here for you. How are you? Honestly." An I'm okay wouldn't suffice.

"Honestly? I don't know." She said as her friend sat down and pulled food out. She handed Amu her drink and leaned back in her chair. "She's alive, but I don't know about my father." It would have been much easier if she hated them as much as she'd said she did.

"Did you find out where they've been?" Utau asked, pulling a chip out and chewing it.

Yes, she did and it only made her feel worse. "They were in America." Utau's eyes grew huge.

"What were they doing there?" She then took a bite from her sandwich. "Extended vacation?"

"No, they came back three months ago though. I found out that my mother went to rehab for alcohol and drugs after what happened." She still couldn't say it, but Utau had no problem saying it.

"Good. After she got into a wreck with Aiko in the front seat, that's where she needed to be." Amu had to bite her tongue to not go off on another tangent about that night.

"Yeah. Anyways," The subject was quickly changed without any mention of the car accident that nearly killed her son. "They came back three months ago and have been in Tokyo. They were living in a hotel room until about three weeks ago. No one filed a missing persons report and the hotel chalked it up to criminals and forgot about it because they paid a large deposit."

"Shit," Utau said, leaning forward and resting her elbows on the mahogany desk. "Why do you think he just now sent you the package? Why do you think he went after your family?"

She was sure it was because he craved attention. Overnight, the coverage of the murders he committed vanished from news stations. Aizawa canceled the press conferences she had. Who else does he have to lay blame to besides the woman who chased him?

"I don't know." Her theory wasn't getting out just yet. Too many people in this department doubted her theories, or profiles. She didn't get a degree for nothing, you know. Her profiles, about ninety five percent of the time, were spot on. Before becoming the leader, she got requests from other Law Enforcement agencies around Japan, wanting her help. The fact that she was young, and female was the root of doubt.

She's gotten catching serial killers down to a science.

"You are in charge. Maybe it's a scare tactic to get you to back off." She suggested.

"I backed off five months ago." She deadpanned.

"You backed off _officially._" She clarified. Amu locked her jaw. "I know you, Amu. I've known you for ten years and I know you're not going to back off that easily." She was completely right. Amu's face said as much. "So whatever you found, or think you found, is important."

"Shut the door." Amu said. For the millionth time in her life, she thanked God for creating Utau in all of her love and annoying glory. "I didn't even find much."

"You still found something, even if it wasn't much." She caught that. Of course she did; she'd interned for a damn lawyer.

"He used to call me." Amu supplied. "A week after I got a package, I got a phone call. The number could never be traced. He used throwaway cells. I got a phone call after I didn't go to the scheduled press conference. I thought I recognized the noise in the background and as a bar that I go to when I meet a CI. So I went there. I didn't find anything, or him. I asked some questions and no one knew anything."

"Well, damn." Utau said. "Did you tell Kukai?"

"Yeah, but I might go back there. He vanished right after the phone call. Something must have happened. I figured he was divorced, so it wasn't a wife calling to complain. Maybe a family death."

"Sounds like you've given this a lot of thought already." She smiled at Amu as she said it. "You're a force to be reckoned with, that's for sure. Whether you're in momma bear mode, or badass police officer mode." She laughed loudly and finally bit into her sandwich. "How's Aiko? Kukai told me he's going to work with my brother."

"His principal called us to tell us that he thought it'd be safer if he didn't come to school." She swallowed before she spoke again. "I told them what happened, and that's what they said."

She sighed in disapproval. "So. Are you okay? I know you don't like them, but,"

"But they're my parents and I feel bad." She said honestly. "I'm okay if I'm with Ikuto and Aiko, or keeping myself busy. When I don't have either or those things, I wonder if there's anything I could have done."

"There's nothing. You had no idea they were in Tokyo." Guilt still came over her sadly. "I have to go, but enjoy your lunch. I'll see you later."

She finished her lunch and then took her drink with her to find her brother. "I think we're going to have to wait for the phone call." She stated in a dead voice. "We have no idea where he is, or who he is."

"He might not give you anything useful."

"He wants to mess with my head. I think he will."

If he didn't, there's no way to find her god forsaken parents without searching every building in Tokyo. Who knows is he's even still in Tokyo? He could've fled, but her gut told her otherwise.

"So, I heard you got a new security system." Her brother said nonchalantly, flipping through papers. Fury went through her as she realized they did not pertain to their parents.

"Is anyone trying to find them?" She hissed, her voice laced with poison. His body froze completely. "Am I the only one here giving a hundred and ten percent to find them?" Everyone seemed to grab a file that had to do with Midori and Tsumugu Hinamori at the exact same time.

"Chief Aizawa told us to focus on cases we had tangible evidence for." The same intern from yesterday said nervously. Just as Amu turned to go to Aizawa and rip him a new one, the girl shoved a file at her. "Your father's credit card was used a gas station across the city four days ago. Whoever used it bought water and canned food. I went down and looked at the security tapes, but nothing stood out immediately. I did get all of the tapes for you go through yourself though." Dia thrust a box at her.

The realization that there isn't any real evidence besides a box of pictures and a finger slammed into her. There's absolutely _nothing _she can do besides wait for him to slip up. She sighed heavily and took the box from her. This unpaid intern should really be paid. Not to mention, she'd just saved everyone from Amu tearing them a new one.

"Thank you." She said and watched her rush back to the lab where encountering people didn't happen. She really didn't do well with conflict so she preferred to be with lab equipment. Science is easier than human interaction to Dia. "If you're not going to look for them, fine." She leaned over and stared in her brother's eyes. "But good luck telling Ami that you don't know where our parents are because you're working on something else."

His arsenal of comebacks didn't have one for that. He felt about two inches tall as she went to watch through security footage by herself. Damn. Here he was just sitting here. He'd been going through a magazine earlier to escape. Amu was the one about to tear the city apart to help their parents even though she had every right to hate them. He just wanted to avoid every thought of this situation like the plague. Kukai's never felt like such a coward.

* * *

Home is where each sibling escaped to after a long day. Kukai went home to Utau, but some days she was on call and he went out with friends from work. Ami went home to her little apartment. Some days, most days, her boyfriend came over. They had a newfound relationship. Amu went home to her family, and thanked god that Ikuto worked days at a high school. Worrying about him being called out to counsel the youth wasn't a problem.

He cooked pasta while she sat at the kitchen table, with her head in her hands. "There's nothing at all." She grumbled, letting her head fall against the wood. "Do you know how many times I've said that the past two days?"

He chuckled, giving her a little ray of light. "I have a pretty good idea. But Nadeshiko has Aiko tonight, so just wait for me to finish dinner. I'll make sure you forget all about today." He winked at her. Amu came up behind him and wrapped her arms around him.

"I don't know if that means you're going to dazzle me with romance, or if that means I'm getting fantastic sex." He choked on his laughter that time while she snickered. Being together felt so natural. Sure, they'd had their fights in their long relationship and the honeymoon phase only lasted so long. After dating for two years, and being married for almost eight, she knew everything about him.

"I'll let you decide." He gave her a bite of pasta, while she laughed. "Good?" She nodded. "Alright, good. Now go upstairs until I call for you." He rushed her off, swatting her leg with the towel. Her giggling could still be heard as she rushed up the stairs. Amu put her hair up in a ponytail, letting hair droop down on the sides. Her body has filled out more since high school. She even gained a few inches in height. She crouched and took her gun out of the holster on her right ankle.

Since her six year old wasn't running around the house like the energizer bunny on steroids tonight, she left it on her dresser. Usually, she'd put in her side dresser drawer and lock their door. She'd seen too many news stories about young children finding a loaded gun and hurting themselves or someone else by mistake. She slid the clip out anyways, out of habit. When she came home around six, she'd fully intended to keep her gun on her person and loaded. Neither of them would enjoy the night if she was worried about having to shoot an intruder.

"Come on!" Ikuto yelled up the stairs. She padded down the stairs quickly and slid her jacket off so she was in a plain t shirt. The living room lights were off, but there were lit candles sitting around the room. "You need a good night." She grinned and wrapped her arms around his waist. He enveloped her in a tight hug. His lips met the top of her head. "I love you."

She buried her head in his chest, remembering how good he smells. "I love you too. Thank you for this." He picked her up and set her on the couch. He handed her a plate of food and turned on the TV.

"I rented some of your favorite movies." I held up a stack of DVD's.

"What did I ever do to deserve you?" She said in awe of how thoughtful he always is. "Do you ever think about how we'll tell Aiko how we met?" He nodded.

"Of course we'll wait until he's older because of the circumstances, but I'll be sure to tell him how you cut my arm open." She glared at him. He's never let her forget that even though it was his fault. "I'll tell him how you almost broke my nose." She rolled her eyes.

"You were the one who wanted to help me learn to defend myself. I guess I did pretty well." They laughed together and began eating. "This is delicious." Heavenly is more like it, she thought.

* * *

Midori knew someone was looking for them. The memory of seeing this man put her…appendage in a box is hazy because of the excruciating pain she'd been in at the time. She wasn't sure she saw him write the name right. Amu? That couldn't be right, could it? There must be other women with the name of Amu in this city. Her daughter was one of many.

By now her wrist was rubbed raw from trying to pull her hand free of the metal cuff. She winced again as she pulled, hoping for something. Nothing happened. The only good thing she had right now was that he was gone. He wasn't going to hit her some more, or cut anything else off. She'd never been so disturbed in her life.

Maybe this is their punishment for the terrible things they've done to everyone they knew.

Her own husband stirred, barely able to open his swelled eyes. Across the room, her ring caught her eye. It sat on the desk, mocking her.

Someone was going to find them, weren't they?

* * *

Amu and Ikuto fell asleep in their bed, and she woke up every time there was so much as a sound. The first time it was some kids outside that snuck out. She just rolled back over and ignored them. Then she woke up to another sound, like a window had been broken. When she opened her eyes, Ikuto was gone.

Without thinking about it first, Amu launched herself out of her bed, and loaded her gun. Silently she made her way down the stairs. The first thing she saw in her living room was a shadow. She readied herself to shoot, just in case, and turned the safety off.

"Don't move," She whirled around the corner, finger on the trigger. "Shit." She lowered her gun, taking in the sight. "What's going on here?" Her husband looked at her unaffected by the hand gun. However the teenager looked like he'd piss his pants. She turned the safety back on and set it on the table. "Why is our window broken?" The clock read 4: 37.

"My friends and I were screwing around." He said nervously, lifting up a baseball.

"In the dark, at four in the morning?" She said slowly. Amu bit her tongue to keep from saying something sarcastic.

"It was stupid." She nodded impatiently. "Please don't tell my parents. I'll pay for the window. I can bring a check tomorrow, I swear!"

"Sure, sure. I won't tell your parents, but you're fixing my window. Why didn't the alarm go off?" She turned to Ikuto.

"I was already down here getting a drink. I disabled when I saw him instead of someone else. I don't want police to show up over a baseball."

"I'm really sorry."

"Just go home." She waved him off. He more or less rushed out of the house. There was no doubt he was telling his friends about how his cop neighbor scared him with a gun. She looked down in disdain. She scared him while not wearing pants. Isn't that lovely?

"Did you just now realize you're half naked?" He said, laughing loudly.

"My bad. I wasn't thinking about pants because I'm a little on edge." He still laughed.

"Let's go back to bed." He swung her up into his arms, like he had the night they got married, and carried her upstairs.

* * *

**End Chapter Two**

**Please review if you enjoyed. Thanks!**

**-Kelsey. **


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